Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country mainly located in Central Asia. It covers a land area of 2,724,900 square kilometres and has one of the lowest population densities in the world, at fewer than 6 people per square kilometre. Kazakhstan is the most dominant nation of Central Asia economically, generating 60% of the region’s GDP, primarily through its oil and gas industry.
About Kazakhstan in brief
Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country mainly located in Central Asia with a smaller portion west of the Ural River in Eastern Europe. It covers a land area of 2,724,900 square kilometres and has one of the lowest population densities in the world, at fewer than 6 people per square kilometre. Kazakhstan is the most dominant nation of Central Asia economically, generating 60% of the region’s GDP, primarily through its oil and gas industry. It is officially a democratic, secular, unitary, constitutional republic with a diverse cultural heritage. It was the last of the Soviet republics to declare independence during the dissolution of theSoviet Union in 1991. Human Rights Watch says that Kazakhstan heavily restricts freedom of assembly, speech, and religion. The first president of Kazakhstan was characterised as an authoritarian, and his government was accused of numerous human rights violations, including suppression of dissent and censorship of the media. In 329 BC, Alexander the Great and his Great Macedonian army fought in the Battle of Jaxartes against the Scythians along the Syr Darya River, now known as the Cuman-Kipchak River. While ancient cities Tarazrat and Hazratan had long served as important way-stations connecting Europe and Asia, they later joined the modern-day Kazakhstan around the early 11th century, where they later established the vast Kipchaks. The name comes from the ancient Turkic word qaz, ‘to wander’, reflecting the Kazakhs’ nomadic culture.
The Persian suffix -stan means ‘land’ or ‘place of’ so Kazakhstan can be literally translated as ‘land of the wanderers’ It is a member of the United Nations, WTO, CIS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Eurasian Economic Union, CSTO, OSCE, OIC, CCTS, and TURKSOY. It has a population of 18. 3 million residents, and is the eighth-largest country in the World. It does not border Mongolia, although they are only 37 kilometers apart. Kazakhstan has been inhabited since the Paleolithic era. During recent prehistoric times, Central Asia was inhabited by groups such as the possibly Proto-Indo-European Afanasievo culture, later early Indo-Iranians cultures such as Andronovo, and the Saka and Massagetae. Other groups included the Persian Achaemenid Empire in the territory of the modern country. In the 13th century the territory was subjugated by the Mongol Empire under Genghis Khan. In 1936, it was made the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, part of the USSR, and later became the Kazakh Republic. The term Kazakh is increasingly being used to refer to any inhabitant of Kazakhstan,. including non-Kazakstan and other neighbouring countries. It also has vast mineral resources, and also adjoining a large part of Caspian Sea in the southwest. The Kazakh territory was a key constituent of the Eurasia trading Steppe Route, the ancestor of the terrestrial Silk Roads.
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This page is based on the article Kazakhstan published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 17, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
